Overstreet’s Annual Favorite Films Lists

I’ve been looking closely at movies for a long time. And the practice has made me a vigorous list-maker.

Here’s a quick summary of the color-coding:

TREASURES:

Films that have profoundly inspired, influenced, and affected me. I want all of them in my personal collection for future reference. Why are they listed in red? They’re like Moses’ burning bush, always blazing, never consumed, and they’ve given me close encounters with something sacred.

FAVORITES:

Films I will probably never tire of revisiting, studying, sharing, and discussing. Why are they listed in purple? Among films, I consider them royalty.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Films worth seeing more than once, studying, sharing, and discussing. Why are they listed in blue? To a rain-soaked Seattle-dweller like myself, blue is a reason to celebrate.

DECENT / NOTEWORTHY:

Films worth seeing once, maybe twice, due to their strong points. Why are they so grey? They may be colorful while they’re playing, but they didn’t make a strong, lasting impression.

1980

1970s

Treasures: The Mirror, Apocalypse Now, The Muppet Movie, Alien, Waterhip Down, Stalker, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, Taxi Driver, Star Wars,The Black Stallion, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Days of Heaven, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Black Stallion

Favorites: Annie Hall, Killer of Sheep, All the President’s Men, Eraserhead, Network, Marathon Man, Love and Death, Jaws, The Godfather, Solaris, Sleeper, Chinatown, The Godfather Part II, Badlands, The Exorcist, Harold and Maude, Claire’s Knee, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, Cries and Whispers, The Ruling Class, The Long Goodbye, A Woman Under the Influence, The Conversation, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, F is for Fake, Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, The Jerk, Being There, Manhattan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV), The Hobbit (1977)

Achievements: 21 Up,The Rescuers, The Man Who Would Be King, M*A*S*H, THX 1138, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Sting, Mean Streets, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Robin Hood, Don’t Look Now, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Three Days of the Condor, Mikey and Nicky, Assault on Precinct 13, The Last Wave, The American Friend, Suspiria, High Anxiety, Soldier of Orange, The Deer Hunter, Superman, Interiors, The Last Waltz, Norma Rae, Wise Blood, Camera Buff, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Mad Max, Barry Lyndon, Pete’s Dragon

Decent / Noteworthy Films: The Lord of the Rings

1920s-1960s

Here are the current (but occasionally updated) lists of my favorite films from the 1960s back through the 1920s. Clearly, I have a lot to learn about these decades. But give me a break… I wasn’t born until 1970, and didn’t start really exploring cinema until I was in college. I’m working forwards and backwards at the same time, following my curiosity.

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1960s

Favorites: A Man for All Seasons (1966), Simon of the Desert (1969),Playtime (1967), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Sound of Music (1965), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Lord of the Flies (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (TV) (1966), Army of Shadows (1969), The Graduate (1967), 8 1/2 (1962), Winter Light (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Achievements: Night of the Living Dead (1968), My Fair Lady (1967), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Wild Bunch (1969), True Grit (1969), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Yojimbo (1961)